§ 493, 494. THE SALTS OF THE SEA. 263 



given to the waters of the sea on the fifth day, and we may form 

 some idea of how literally they have obeyed this order, bringing 

 forth most abundantly even now " the moving creature that hath 

 life," and doing it in obedience to that command.* 



493. In the waters of the Pacific Ocean, the calcareous matter 

 Ditto, calcareous in secms to bc in cxccss, for the microscopic shells 

 in the Atlantic. thcrc, as wcll as the conch and the coral, are built 

 mostly of lime. In contemplating this round of compensations, 

 the question may be asked. Where is the agent that regulates the 

 supply of solid materials for the insects of the sea to build their 

 edifices of? Answer : The rivers. They bring down, and pour 

 into the sea continually, the pabulum which those organisms re- 

 quire. This amount again depends upon the quantity and power 

 of the rains to wash out from the solid rock ; and the rains de- 

 pend upon the amount of vapor that the sea delivers to the winds, 

 which, as Chapman's observations show, depends directly upon 

 the salts of the sea. 



494. So far the two records agree, and the evidence is clear 

 The records of the that the sca was Salt when it received this com- 



sea and of revelation i t\ i iY» t 



agree. mauQ. Do they anord any testimony as to its con- 



dition previously ? Let us examine. On the second day of crea- 

 tion the waters were gathered together unto one place, and the 

 dry land appeared. Before that period, therefore, there were no 

 rivers, and consequently no washings of brine by mists, nor dew, 

 nor rains from the valleys among the hills. The water covered 

 the earth. This is the account of revelation ; and the account 

 which Nature has written, in her own peculiar characters, on the 

 mountain and in the plain, on the rock and in the sea, as to the 

 early condition of our planet, indicates the same. The inscrip- 

 tions on the geological column tell that there was a period when 

 the solid parts of the earth's crust which now stand high in the 

 air were covered by water. The geological evidence that it was 

 so, with perhaps the exception of a solitary mountain peak here 

 and there, is conclusive ; and when we come to examine the fos- 

 sil remains that are buried in the mountains and scattered over 

 the plains, we have as much reason to say that the sea was salt 

 when it covered or nearly covered the earth, as the naturalist, 

 when he sees a skull or bone whitening on the wayside, has to 

 say that it was once covered with flesh. Therefore we have rca- 



* These are imponanr f;!cts that will bear repetition — § IGI, 1G2. 



